Psaki describes effort to promote vaccine confidence in ‘white conservative communities’

The Biden administration is focusing its efforts on strengthening vaccine confidence in “white conservative communities” by promoting the vaccine on NASCAR, the country music television channel and shows like “Deadliest Catch,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.

At a White House press briefing on Monday, a reporter asked what efforts were being taken to push vaccines in rural states like Mississippi, Ohio and Oklahoma where they were “having a hard time getting folks vaccinated.” The reporter cited that vaccination rates were only at 34% in these states.

Psaki said a large number of steps were being taken to strengthen vaccine confidence in “the highest-risk and hardest-hit communities” such as “conservative communities, white evangelicals.”

“We’ve run PSAs on ‘The Deadliest Catch,’ we’re engaged with NASCAR and Country Music TV,” Psaki said.

“We’re looking for a range of creative ways to get directly connected to white conservative communities. We won’t always be the best messengers, but we’re still trying to meet people where they are, but also empower local organizations,” she continued.

A recent poll by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation found that Republicans and white evangelical Christians were most likely to refuse the Covid vaccination with almost 30% of each group saying they’ll “definitely not” get vaccinated.

Many are worried that this will impact herd immunity.

President Joe Biden announced a $10 billion investment in March to strengthen “vaccine confidence” in hardest-hit, highest-risk communities.

$3 billion went to strengthening vaccine confidence, according to a White House briefing.

Follow Annaliese Levy on Twitter @AnnalieseLevy